Westar Energy, Inc. and Landis+Gyr have agreed to a comprehensive smart grid infrastructure and services contract to support the utility's grid modernization and consumer choice initiatives.

The initial phase of the agreement involves deployment of 217,000 Gridstream-enabled advanced meters with remote service switch capability and a five-year services contract that includes daily maintenance, cloud services for software and data, and integration support.

"This agreement is part of our commitment to deliver more options to customers for better understanding their energy use, while at the same time improving reliability and operational efficiency in how we deliver that energy," said Greg Greenwood, Senior Vice President, Strategy at Westar Energy. "System and grid infrastructure upgrades help us provide more services to customers and allow us to do that in the most cost effective and reliable way."

The technology deployment will support Westar's existing pre-payment and variable pricing programs, delivery of energy usage information to customers through the internet, and will also provide operational support with outage management and power quality. Remote meter connection capabilities will reduce miles driven by utility personnel, especially for servicing high-transient populations in university communities.